Monday, March 22, 2010

Of Pet Dogs & Arranged Marriages

Someone told me that I am very bad with metaphors, yet I can not stop using my pet ones :-) !!
A few years ago, I had a pet dog- A very handsome & majestic German Shepherd. He was highly admired & feared by everyone in my street, and he certainly deserved to be, for he was one of the most dignified & self respecting animal I had ever known.
Many times during his lifetime, he had been pursued by other dog owners- as a stud for their German Shepherd bitches. Now who would not have wanted his bitch to have Steve's puppies?
As the proud owner of my lovely dog, my father would often be hounded by proposals which would go somewhat like this- "I like your dog! I have a GS bitch, and was wondering if you could lend him to me for a few days?"
The proposals always included an offer for payment in return- either in cash, or in kind ( a puppy, to be specific). But Steve would always disappoint the bitch's owner- he would never even look at the bitch, let alone making her pregnant! I would smile to myself whenever this happened, my Stevie boy was dignified, he would not mate with just anyone just because his owner wanted him to. And that poor thing fancied a stray brown bitch, whom he could not be with because she was "just a street mongrel"

When I look at our Indian society, I find many human beings lacking the basic dignity that even my dog had- some people would just marry anyone for sake of parental pressure. I am appalled, to say the least, that even today there are youngsters whose parents fix their marriages even without their approvals! And certain people even take pride in doing so! Pathetic.

It is not uncommon for people to marry ( and sleep with) complete strangers.In many cases of arranged marriages, they boy & the girl would have met hardly a couple of times before tying the knot. The concept of arranged marriage is not much different from the arranged mating of pet dogs- All that matters is the breed ( read religion, caste, sub caste ), convenience & the materialistic aspects ( It is the exchange of cash or a puppy in case of dogs, & in case of human beings, it extends to gold, property, furniture, electronic gadgets, vehicles & so on )

It is easy to understand the reason behind the popularity of arranged marriages- it targets the inherent greed of humans, their insatiable thirst for easy money and social status. And Sex is guaranteed- even if someone is socially or biologically incapable of attracting a suitable partner, one can easily get a sexual partner through such arrangements.

And the best thing? It is so convenient & simple- as simple as getting your pet dogs mated :-) !!

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